Sandy's punch rearranged the shape of the Shore

The Jersey coastline, before and after the hurricane

Six days after superstorm Sandy made landfall in New Jersey, the U.S. Geological Survey began collecting aerial photographs of a 600-mile section of the Atlantic coast. They compared those images to baseline photos taken in May 2009 of the same locations to see how the storm transformed features of the coastline. Below are seven images of selected sites on the Jersey Shore, use the slider to switch between before and after the hurricane.

Deal as it appeared May 21, 2009 and on November 5, 2012.

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Long Branch as it appeared May 21, 2009 and on November 5, 2012.

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Mantoloking as it appeared May 21, 2009 and on November 5, 2012.

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Mantoloking as it appeared May 21, 2009 and on November 5, 2012.

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Seaside Heights as it appeared May 21, 2009 and on November 5, 2012.

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Seaside Heights as it appeared May 21, 2009 and on November 5, 2012.

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Island Beach State Park as it appeared May 21, 2009 and on November 5, 2012.

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New report shows dune loss from superstorm Sandy was more severe than hurricanes Ike and Isaac.

Dunes in Mantoloking lost more than 20 feet of elevation

The beating New Jersey's dunes took from superstorm Sandy was far worse than anywhere else on the Atlantic and even surpassed what was recorded after some Gulf Coast hurricanes, according to a new report.

A week after superstorm Sandy made landfall, the U.S. Geological Survey began surveying the coastline from North Carolina to New York, gathering images and key data on how the contours and characteristics of the coastline had been altered by the hurricane.

What they found was the Shore's dunes were pared much lower by Sandy than what the USGS observed anywhere else, and the elevation loss exceeded what they had observed on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico following hurricanes Isaac (2012) and Ike (2008). Dune systems, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, often serve "as the last line of defense in protecting communities against storm damage."

The USGS findings were released last week in a routine report that examines how the coastal topography morphs during a hurricane. Hilary Stockdon, the lead investigator for the USGS's St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, told the Asbury Park Press that her team started doing these studies after Ike. The infamous Category 3 Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in 2005.

When Ike made landfall near Galveston, Texas, a barrier island southeast of Houston, the dunes there were leveled. Elevation changes of between six and 10 feet were logged, Stockdon said. Dune loss from Isaac was, on average, slightly less severe. The magnitude of the loss observed on the Jersey Shore was greater than either, she added.

"There were areas with 10 to 15 feet of vertical loss of the dunes, and that is significant because dunes take a very long time to rebuild naturally," Stockdon said.

The greatest impacts were noticed on the Barnegat Peninsula, according to the report. Dunes near the southern end of Mantoloking were reduced by more than 20 feet.

Stockdon said the USGS also uses the data to grade how its pre-storm predictions fared, and that report should be released later this year. The center, according to their website, identified several areas in southern New Jersey where it expected dunes to be overwhelmed during Sandy.